Presentation

An international Meeting on “Sensory Science and Perception” will be held on June 20-22, 2002, in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, BarcelonaSpain. The Meeting will bring together researchers and professionals from academy and industry in order to present the state of the art of the fast evolving field of Sensory Science. Additionally, the Meeting pretends to establish the institutional framework necessary for creating a working community of Sensory Scientists. The program will have a scientific track, with communications and round tables, especially designed to allow the transference of knowledge between all the different disciplines that belong to Sensory Science.

The label “Sensory Science” is used to subsume a set of related scientific and technological disciplines that are concerned with the sensory reception of sundry high quality consumer products, such as, among many others, wine, perfumes, cars or computers.

The choice of disciplines that are normally attributed to Sensory Science is still a matter of discussion, even their scope could be defined by appealing to a “virtual” pyramid whose vertices would be sensory analysis, neurophysiology, psychology, computer engineering and analytic chemistry.

The problem in identifying the sensory “sciences” may be traced back to the difficulty in listing the phenomena, methods and technologies that Sensory Science should be concerned with. One could include here issues in basic science, such as the study of the sensory mechanisms that allow the detection and transduction of the environmental information, all the way down to the perceptual representations that are formed at a central level; applied sciences, such as sensory analysis; technology, such as industrial engineering; and even theoretical disciplines, such as the development of computational models of sensory processing.

Lately, there have been serious attempts to turn this “virtual” community of Sensory Sciences into a real one. The reason behind these attempts is twofold. On the one hand, the knowledge, methods and applications within Sensory Science have reached a degree of excellence and development that each discipline can be greatly benefited, and benefit at the same time, by interacting with other sensory sciences. On the other hand, the consumer oriented industry is progressively interested in providing products at the highest level of quality, and this obviously includes taking care of its sensory qualities.

Rubes Editorial has identified this situation and has decided to undertake the enterprise of contributing to create an active community of sensory scientists. As the different sensory sciences look forward to a rapidly developing 21^st century, Rubes Editorial has recognized the need to pause and reflect on how the directions and priorities throughout the sensory sciences must be shaped by the needs of the industry, in particular, and by the needs and expectations of the society, in general.

The fact is that during the tremendous period of expansion of the different sensory sciences in the last twenty years, the sensory community has never lost sight of its objectives, but the specific choices of new and expanded programs of research and development will be made easier by the steady growth of fruitful interactions among sensory scientists. If the interaction is established in a common ground, Sensory Science can move toward a practice of interdisciplinary development. Over time, this will allow the creation of a working community with common goals and strategies, rather than a collection of isolated and underdeveloped disciplines.

The aim of Rubes Editorial is to contribute, in close collaboration with Freixenet, S.A., to the organization of a Sensory Science Meeting with the following objectives:

1. Provide the place and means for bringing together the members of the ‘virtual’ community of sensory scientists.

2. Create a forum of professional interaction in Sensory Science, with knowledge transfer and discussion.

3. Promote the development of interdisciplinary research or applied projects among sensory scientists.

4. Define and establish the institutional framework necessary to create a working community of Sensory Science.

The Meeting will cover the following areas:

In this section, the Meeting will address the science underlying how humans recognize, perceive and respond to tastes, odors and chemical substances. In other words, the section will be concerned with the chain from chemical/physical properties of food to sensory perception, including physiological, psychological and cultural factors of sensory perception, and even physiological, psychological and cultural factors of food choice. The section will also focus on other issues such as genetics, age, gender, experience, and the environment influence sensory capabilities.

B. Sensory analysis

The objective of this area is to discuss sensory methods in general and particularly advanced profiling methods are explored with regard to measuring and understanding sensory quality, including studies of sensory panel training in industrial and research projects. Other related interests are sensometrics and qualimetrics methods as tools for analysis and interpretation of data to enhance reliability and validity of sensory data, statistical approaches to sensory data management, etc.

C. Technologies

D. Industrial applications and quality control

SCIENTIFIC COMMITEE